This relates to heater assemblies for use in clothes dryers and, more particularly, to an improved heater assembly in which is easier to fabricate and simpler to install.
In the manufacture of clothes dryers for household or commercial use, a heater assembly is usually fabricated by a supplier at his manufacturing site. Completed assemblies are then shipped to the appliance manufacturer where they are installed in the dryer as part of the assembly process. During this installation, the heater assembly is first installed in a mounting fixture and the fixture then installed in the dryer. Heater assemblies comprise coils of open heating wire mounted on insulators which, in turn, are supported on wire rods. A set of electrical terminals are attached to the ends of the wire for insertion in an appropriate receptacle or socket. While a heater assembly is not flimsy, neither is it particularly rugged. As a practical matter therefore, the more a heater assembly is handled, the greater the risk it may become damaged and unusable.
In addition to the above, it is also disadvantageous to have so many parts required for the installation of the heater assembly. Besides the cost of the parts, the more parts there are, the more assembly time is probably required to manufacture an assembly. Added cost factors include enhanced inventories, etc. It thus would be beneficial to eliminate as many parts as possible, particularly if in doing so a way could be found to also make a heater assembly less vulnerable to damage, for example, during shipment and installation.